The investigation of the needs of immigrants related to education and training will begin during the initial assessment provided in the Integration Act, as part of the examination of the person's general integration capabilities. In the initial assessment, the authority, together with the immigrant, tentatively assess such things as the immigrant’s need for language studies and their study skills. Based on the initial assessment, the authority directs the immigrant to training or other services that correspond to the needs of the immigrant.
The integration plan often provides for participation in integration training. However, participation in the training does not require that a plan has been drawn up. An immigrant is not entitled to unemployment benefits during full-time studies if the integration training has not been agreed on in the integration plan. Immigrants may be entitled to an increased unemployment benefit and expense allowance if integration training is included in the integration plan.
The aim is for an immigrant’s education path to progress flexibly and for their language skills and other skills promoting employment to develop as planned during integration training. For the implementation of consistent integration paths, it is important that the education offered is sufficient and that the needs of the target group are taken into account in a versatile manner. Effective guidance to training and strong support provided during the training are prerequisites for successful integration.
Alternatives also available for integration training
Not all immigrants need integration training. Depending on a person’s previous work and training experience, the preferred option for some of the immigrants might be vocational labour market training or employment-oriented coaching services. Immigrants have access to all services provided by the TE Office and municipal experiments on employment.
Some of the services, such as information and advisory services, career guidance, coaching, work and training trials and vocational labour market training, are available to all immigrants.
Some of the services will require registration as a jobseeker. The precondition for providing these services is that the person is an unemployed jobseeker (pay subsidy). In order to determine the different service options, it is important that the immigrant receives versatile information on employment services either online or in person at the TE Office.
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